Thee, laftly, nuptial Bower, by me adorn'd

With what to Sight or Smell was fweet: From thee
How fhall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower World, to this obfcure

And wild? How shall we breathe in other Air
Lefs pure, accuftom❜d to immortal Fruits?

ADAM's Speech abounds with Thoughts which are equally moving, but of a more mafculine and elevated Turn. Nothing can be conceived more fublime and poetical than the following Paffage in it:

This most afflicts me, that departing hence
As from bis Face I fhall be bid, depriv'd
His bleffed Count'nance; here I could frequent,
With Worship, Place by Place where he vouchsaf'd
Prefence divine, and to my Sons relate,

On this Mount he appear'd, under this Tree
Stood vifible, among thefe Pines his Voice

I heard, here with him at this Fountain talk'd:
So many grateful Altars I would rear

Of graffy Turf, and pile up ev'ry Stone
Of Luftre from the Brook, in Memory
Or Monument to Ages, and thereon

Offer Sweet Smelling Gums and Fruits and Flowers.
In yonder nether World where shall I feek
His bright Appearances, or Footfteps trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet recall'd
To Life prolong'd and promis'd Race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmoft Skirts
Of Glory, and far off his Steps adore.

THE Angel afterwards leads Adam to the higheft Mount of Paradife, and lays before him a whole Hemifphere, as a proper Stage for those Visions which were to be reprefented on it. I have before obferved

G 6

how

how the Plan of Milton's Poem is in many Particulars greater than that of the Iliad or Æneid. Virgil's Hero, in the last of these Poems, is entertained with a Sight of all those who are to defcend from him; but though that Episode is juftly admired as one of the nobleft Defigns in the whole Æneid, every one must allow that this of Milton is of a much higher Nature. Adam's Vifion is not confined to any particular Tribe of Mankind, but extends to the whole Species.

IN this great Review which Adam takes of all his Sons and Daughters, the firft Objects he is prefented with exhibit to him the Story of Cain and Abel, which is drawn together with much Clofeness and Propriety of Expreffion. That Curiofity and natural Horror which arifes in Adam at the Sight of the firft dying Man, is touched with great Beauty.

But have I now feen Death? Is this the Way
I must return to native Duft? O Sight
Of Terror foul, and ugly to behold,

Horrid to think, how horrible to feel!

THE fecond Vision fets before him the Image of Death in a great Variety of Appearances. The Angel, to give him a general Idea of thofe Effects which his Guilt had brought upon his Pofterity, places before him a large Hofpital, or Lazar-house filled with Perfons lying under all kinds of mortal Difeafes. How finely has the Poet told us, that the fick Perfons languished under lingring and incurable Distempers, by an apt and judicious Ufe of fuch imaginary Beings as those I mentioned in my laft Paper.

Dire was the Toffing, deep the Groans! Defpair
Tended the Sick, busy from Couch to Couch;
And over them triumphant Death his Dart
Shook, but delay'd to ftrike, though oft invok'd
With Vows, as their chief Good and final Hope.

THE

THE Paffion which likewife rifes in Adam on this Occafion, is very natural.

Sight fo deform, what Heart of Rock could long
Dry-eyed behold? Adam could not, but wept,
Tho' not of Woman born; Compassion quell'd
His beft of Man, and gave him up to Tears.

THE Discourse between the Angel and Adam, which follows, abounds with noble Morals.

AS there is nothing more delightful in Poetry, than a Contraft and Oppofition of Incidents, the Author, after this melancholy Profpect of Death and Sickness, raifes up a Scene of Mirth, Love, and Jollity. The fecret Pleasure that steals into Adam's Heart as he is intent upon this Vision, is imagined with great Delicacy. I must not omit the Description of the loofe female Troop, who feduced the Sons of God, as they are called in Scripture. For that fair female Troop thou saw'ft, that seem'd Of Goddeffes, fo blithe, fo fmooth, fo gay,

Yet empty of all Good, wherein confifts
Woman's domeftic Honour, and chief Praife;
Bred only and completed to the Tafe

Of luftful Appetence, to fing, to dance,

To drefs, and troule the Tongue, and roll the Eye:
To thefe that fober Race of Men, whofe Lives
Religious, titled them the Sons of God,

Shall yield up all their Virtue, all their Fame
Ignobly, to the Trains and to the Smiles

Of thofe fair Atheists.

THE next Vision is of a quite contrary Nature, and filled with the Horrors of War. Adam at the Sight of it melts into Tears, and breaks out in that paffionate Speech.

O what are these !

Death's Minifters, not Men, who thus deal Death

Inhumanly to Men, and multiply

Ten thousandfold the Sin of him who flew
His Brother: for of whom fuch Majacre
Make they but of their Brethren, Men of Men?

MILTON, to keep up an agreeable Variety in his Visions, after having raised in the Mind of his Reader the feveral Ideas of Terror which are conformable to the Defcription of War, paffes on to thofe fofter Images of Triumphs and Feftivals, in that Vifion of Lewdness and Luxury which users in the Flood.

AS it is visible that the Poet had his Eye upon Ovid's Account of the unive fal Deluge, the Reader may obferve with how much Judgment he has avoided every thing that is redundant or puerile in the Latin Poet. We do not here see the Wolf fwimming among the Sheep, nor any of those wanton Imaginations, which Seneca found fault with, as unbecoming the great Cataftrophe of Nature. If our Poet has imitated that Verfe in which Ovid tells us that there was nothing but Sea, and that this Sea had no Shore to it, he has not set the Thought in fuch a Light as to incur the Cenfure which Critics have paffed upon it. The latter Part of that Verfe in Ovid is idle and fuperfluous, but just and beautiful in Milton.

Famque mare & tellus nullum difcrimen habebant,
Nil nifi pontus erat, deerant quoque littora a ponto. OVID.

Sea cover'd Sea,

Sea without Shore

MILTON

IN Milton the former Part of the Defcription does not foreftal the latter. How much more great and folemn on this Occafion is that which follows in our Englifh Poet,

And in their Palaces

Where Luxury late reign'd, Sea-monsters whelp'd

And ftabled

than

than that in Ovid, where we are told that the Sea-calfs lay in those Places where the Goats were us'd to browze? The Reader may find feveral other parallel Paffages in the Latin and English Description of the Deluge, wherein our Poet has vifibly the Advantage. The Sky's being overcharged with Clouds, the defcending of the Rains, the rifing of the Seas, and the Appearance of the Rainbow, are fuch Defcriptions as every one must take notice of. The Circumftance relating to Paradife is fo finely imagined, and fuitable to the Opinions of many learned Authors, that I cannot forbear giving it a Place in this Paper.

Then fhall this Mount

Of Paradife by Might of Waves be mov'd
Out of his Place, push'd by the horned Flood;
With all his Verdure Spoil'd, and Trees adrift
Down the great River to the op'ning Gulf,
And there take root; an Island falt and bare,
The Haunt of Seals and Orcs and Sea-mews Clang.

THE Tranfition which the Poet makes from the Vifion of the Deluge, to the Concern it occafioned in Adam, is exquifitely graceful, and copied after Virgil, though the first Thought it introduces is rather in the Spirit of Ovid.

How didft thou grieve then, Adam, to behold
The End of all thy Offspring, End fo fad,
Depopulation! thee another Flood,

Of Tears and Sorow a Flood, thee alfo drown'd,
And funk thee as thy Sons; till gently rear'd
By th' Angel, on thy Feet thou floodft at last,
Tho' comfortless, as when a Father mourns
His Children, all in View deftroy'd at once.

I have been the more particular in my Quotations out of the Eleventh Book of Parad se Loft, because it is not

generally